When and why did Britain go from being an ally of the Ottoman Empire to helping defeat it?
The writing on the wall was visible when Admiral Fisher decided that the new Dreadnought class battle ship would be built and use petrol instead of coal. At the time oil was available in a few places out of the US. Azerbaijan had oil fields but were unavailable to the British. Oil fields in Abadan Iran were in nominal British control but was far from the Mediterranean. What remained was in Turkish control.
The fact that the victors of the Great War (British and the French) almost declared war on each other over the route and control of a certain pipeline from Mosul to Eastern Mediterranean proves the importance of this issue.
To check the Russian expansion to the south Turkey was needed to the British Empire. Especially during the times of the Great Game when India was at stake the only way to check the Russians was to support the Turks. When Russia became too powerful and the fact that it would attack Turkey not later than 1918 became obvious and the British changed naval technology the existence of Devlet-I Aliyye (Ottoman Empire) became a burden.
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